The nine-foot bronze statue of Nikola Tesla has sat on Goat Island in Niagara Falls State Park for nearly four decades, a weather-worn monument to a man largely forgotten despite helping to create the electrified world that Niagara Falls symbolizes.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists walk past the statue each year – many of them posing for photos while sitting in its lap – not knowing about the enormous contributions of the creator of the alternating current system that lights our homes.